By Susan Bryant

sbryant@tnonline.com

Two Lehigh County Girl Scouts and one Northampton County Girl Scout were selected by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania Council to be paired with a Take the Lead honoree for the 2021 Take the Lead Lehigh Valley virtual program on April 28.

Girls Scouts participating in this year’s program include Gabrielle Gober and Kourtney Keim from Troop 682, which meets at New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church, New Tripoli, and Susie Schleig from Troop 8357, which meets at Forks Community Center, Easton.

The three honorees are Lin Erickson, executive director, and chief executive officer of Da Vinci Science Center, Allentown, Dr. Deborah Sundlof, cardiologist with Lehigh Valley Heart Institute, Bethlehem, and Victoria Brifo, senior vice president and chief human resource officer with Air Products, Trexlertown.

The Take the Lead program is a fundraiser for the council, and a leadership program that fosters mentorships with women leaders from the community whose work and achievements make the world a better place.

“Our 2021 Take the Lead honorees have changed the world for the better, and serve as incredible role models for our girls.

“The Take the Lead event raises critical funds for Girl Scouting in Eastern Pennsylvania and is more important this year than ever before.

“Event Co-Chairs and Committees work tirelessly to help raise money to sustain Girl Scouting in every community, and to ensure that every girl has access to our leadership program no matter her circumstance,” said Kim E. Fraites-Dow, CEO of GSEP. “Our Girl Scouts, as they always are, will be the stars of the show serving as hosts and presenters of awards to our fantastic honorees, with whom they form relationships through significant mentoring and training events.

High school Girl Scouts shadow women leaders from the Greater Philadelphia, Berks County and Lehigh Valley area for a day to gain insight into their careers and help them jump start their professional networks.

Gober, Keim, Schleig and their mentors Erickson, Sundlof and Brifo spoke with The Press about the program.

Gober, who lives in Weisenberg Township, decided to participate in the program because she supports and understands the program.

“This program honors amazing women like Lin and to raise money to send girls to summer camp, Girl Scout camp,” Gober said.

Gober said she learned from Erickson that she needs to find a job where she can learn something new and exciting every day and to keep learning new things.

“I think she, in essence, covers that you should have fun in your job, and learning new things is a good thing,” Gober said.

Gober would recommend the Take the Lead program to any Girl Scout because it is an amazing program.

“I won so many different titles over the years that I have done it,” Gober said. “I have been the greeter, hostess, Girl Scout ambassador, color guard, donation collector for the campership and now I am a presenter,” Gober said. “I know there is a role for everybody.”

Erickson said she was honored to be recognized by the Girl Scouts, selected as an honoree and to be a mentor.

A Girl Scout for nine years, Erickson believes strongly in the importance of all-girl environments and the confidence in the leadership skills a girl can build in those environments.

Erickson and Gober’s first meeting was via Zoom, then she invited her to be part of the conversation at one of Da Vinci’s meetings with the exhibit designers, who are designing the new science center for downtown Allentown.

They also went behind the scenes at the science center and toured the “Under the Canopy: Animals of the Rainforest” exhibit.

Erickson said a huge importance of the Take the Lead program is the opportunity to connect girls in an impersonal way with different role models.

“It allows them the opportunity to learn more about the career path of people like me and others who have received this award, so they can kind of think about their own career path and imagine the direction they might want to take,” Erickson said. “I am really impressed with the whole program.

“It is a unique leadership program we are fortunate to have in our community.”

Keim, who lives in Lowhill Township, said she became involved with the program because she respects the goals of the program, such as raising money for girls to go to camp and learning important skills.

“I also like the idea of empowering young girls to take action in their community and their own lives,” Keim said. “And, Girls Scouts is also a nonprofit organization, so this specific fundraising event is vital in keeping the organization running and allows Girl Scouts to step into that leadership role and to prepare us for the future.”

Keim learned much about Dr. Sundlof’s profession and her day-to-day life.

“One of the other things I learned from Dr. Sundlof was she repeatedly told me that as a female student pursuing a career, even when the profession is as rigorous as the medical field, you can still have a family, friends and a social life,” Keim said. “I think her words were ‘you can have it all.’”

Keim, who has always been interested in pursuing a career in the medical field, said she was glad to learn Dr. Sundlof was going to be one of the mentors.

“I went on to do a little bit of research on her and found that I definitely made the right decision with all her accomplishments in and outside of her career,” Keim stated.

Keim said she would also recommend the Take the Lead program to other Scouts.

Dr. Sundlof said the core values of Girl Scouts are important.

“I know a program like Take the Lead helps surround young women like Kourtney with people who can show them that it is truly possible to achieve their goals,” Dr. Sundlof said.

Dr. Sundlof said with their mentorship she had to be a little creative because of the pandemic.

“We first got to know each other, then I had her talk to my twin sister, who was also a Girl Scout and is also a cardiologist in Philadelphia so she could get a flavor of what my sister does as a transplant cardiologist,” she said. “She also spoke with my daughter who is a first-year medical student in Philadelphia to get an idea of what she went through to get into the medical field.”

She said Keim then joined her journal club, which meets almost every day of the week to discuss an interesting article pertaining to cardiology. Dr. Sundlof said her goal at being a mentor was to reconnect with the Girl Scouts and to show Keim she can achieve her goals.

She said the importance of this program from her perspective is about the Scouts being able to make connections.

“Because I think it is hard for young people to say ‘How am I going to meet a professional in my field of choice?’” Dr. Sundlof stated. “This program is a great way the girls in our community are able to do that very thing.”

Schleig, of Forks Township, began participating in the Take the Lead program when she was in third grade.

She said that she has learned a great deal from her mentor Brifo.

“I learned how to be a strong and independent woman,” Schleig said. “She gave me a lot of tips.”

Schleig could not imagine what it is like for Brifo to be working in such a high position at Air Products and trying to balance her everyday life.

Schleig would definitely recommend the program because she says it is a good way for girls to meet other girls who might not be in their troop.

Brifo said she was honored to be asked to be a mentor for the program.

“Taking part in the program for me was paying it forward because many, many moons ago I was a Girl Scout myself,” Brifo said. “In my early years Girl Scouts inspired me.

“It was ultimately the place where I got the courage to try new and different things even if other people did not think it was cool.”

Brifo and Schleig’s mentorship began in February.

“She participated in my global monthly leadership team virtual meeting with mostly female leaders from all over the world,” Brifo said. “And later that same day I asked Susie to join my monthly budget meeting.

“There was a separate one-on-one meeting between Susie and I where I got an opportunity to get to know her better and hear about her passion for reading and the things that interest her and I could share a little bit about my life.

“My goal is to give young ladies permission to dream and think outside of the box in terms of what they want to do and then walk away hopefully from that experience knowing that regardless of what they chose there is someone who they can talk to about that interest.

“I think programs like Take the Lead are so important because they allow these young ladies to see it and if you can see it then you can dream it then you can be it. I think Take the Lead for Girls Scouts is so incredibly important.”

For more information about the Take the Lead program, sponsorship opportunities, benefits, event tickets, visit gsep.org/takethelead or email takethelead@gsep.org.

For more information about Girl Scouts, call 215-564-2030 or visit gsep.org.